DHAKA was ranked fourth worst city in Air Quality Index yesterday as its air was classified as unhealthy as it had a score of 169. India’s Delhi and Pakistan’s Lahore were the top two cities in the list with scores of 494 and 269 respectively while Kolkata ranked third with 172 points. The dwellers of these cities will have to experience health effects as the AQI value usually remains there between 151 and 200. In this situation, children and adults, and people with respiratory diseases, such as asthma, are advised to avoid prolonged outdoor exertion. The air quality is categorised as good when AQI score remains between 0-50 while the air is moderate when AQI is 51 to 100 but when AQI is in between 101 and 150, it is classified as unhealthy.
News media reported, millions of people in New Delhi are now passing their days choking through ‘eye-burning’ smog, with schools closed, cars taken off the road and construction halted. The poisonous haze has caused by vehicle fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural burning. There is smoke everywhere and people, including youngsters, kids, elderly are finding it difficult to breathe. Obviously, the situation in Indian capital is more hazardous than Dhaka. But there is nothing to become happy for us. Though Dhaka has long been grappling with air pollution, no effective measures were taken to get rid of the situation. The Global Liveability Index 2019 placed Dhaka as the third least livable city in the world, just after war-torn Syrian capital Damascus and Lagos. The same index of the previous year (2018) ranked Dhaka as the world’s second least livable city. We fear Dhaka will have to face more problematic situation than that of New Delhi if urgent measures are not taken in this regard.
The government needs to take long-term plan-programmes to tackle such a large-scale pollution. We do urge the authorities concerned to impose emissions restrictions on motorbikes, scooters, and old vehicles without fitness which are heavily used in the city. Side by side, other measures also should be taken to keep the situation under control.
